Analyzing Design Toolkits

Design toolkits are always fun and exciting to examine. Generally, as designers we have our own variations of relatively similar design processes, and when new tool kits come out everyone uses them as a buffet of items to interject into what their already comfortable with. But not every project requires the same process or the same tools, so when we get stuck, we have to go back and re-strategize.

To combat against getting stuck in the first place, using the same tools over and over again for the wrong job, and to help ourselves and other designers chose the best course of action from the beginning, a team of service design students studied ten popular design toolkits and compared them against one another. Additionally, we mapped each of the toolkits against the double diamond design process so that people can see where each has its strengths and they know where to look to find just the right tool. This wall chart is a visualization of that study and can be used as a tool in itself as a project planning glossary.